Dannarriah Finley's killer wasn't sophisticated and made "a lot of mistakes," but he had some help from the hot, bacteria-rich Gulf Coast environment.

After laying for days exposed to the elements on Pleasure Island before being found, Dannarriah's tiny body was too badly decomposed to allow collection of much useful evidence.

A case based on strong circumstantial evidence was eventually filed with the Orange County District Attorney's Office, but so far, prosecutors haven't moved ahead with a trial.

Orange detective Maj. Sparky Robinson said that although it is frustrating to police to have the case languish unsolved, he knows they only have one shot at the "person of interest" in the case, and a case has to be strong enough to persuade 12 jurors.

If a defendant walks free and new evidence surfaced the next week, it would be for nothing.

Now, more than 10 years after 4-year-old Dannarriah went missing, July 4, 2002, Robinson hopes forensic science might finally catch up with Finley's rape and murder and bring justice for her and her family.

Although the unsolved slaying case is old, it's not considered "cold," Robinson said, meaning that although it is no longer the subject of daily work and scrutiny, detectives still work to find her killer.

"It's not just sitting on a back burner," he said. "Whenever we have some downtime, we look at some of the investigations."

He declined to divulge details to avoid compromising the ongoing investigation, but said "it was not just a simple abduction and murder."